Fall. Around here, that means one thing in particular (to me at least) – apple season!

I love apples. Raw apples are delicious. But there are so many delicious things you can do with apples. Apple pie. Apple cider donuts. Apple cakes. Apple sauce. Mmmm.

There is a farm just 10 minute from our house that has an apple orchard. We took the boys and their cousin in September. They each got a bag and got to pick all the apples they could. It quickly escalated into pandemonium of course, as these things go when dealing with a 2 year old, a 3 year old, and a 4 year old (the cousin). Our 2 year old was picking apples up off the ground as they were easiest to get to. And the 3 year old and his cousin were trying to grab apples off of trees we weren’t supposed to pick from. They each filled up more then a bag, and I think we ended up buying $30 worth of apples that day. Easily.

Still… It was a fun day. And, with all those apples left over, we got to do some baking.

Truth be told, this recipe featured today is not using those apples. We long since used up those apples from our apple picking adventure on a Baked Apple Fritter recipe. It was so good we baked it twice. Sadly, it was also so good it never stood a chance of getting photographed, so quickly did we all dig into it. At some point we will share. Or rather, we will greedily post it here so we can reference it for baking next year!

So this Caramel Apple Pie Apples recipe was done using apples from the store and is for our October Secret Recipe Club reveal. This month we were assigned Shannon’s blog Searching For Dessert. Shannon is a former pastry chef and believes baking should be fun, something we wholeheartedly agree with. We always try to include our boys in our baking adventures, even if it sometimes often leads to a big mess. True to the name of the blog, Shannon features a lot of delicious looking desserts, though also includes a number of entrees. We ultimately decided on these Caramel Apple Pie Apples as it is apple season (and maybe also because Rachel is a sucker for caramel apples).

This was the first time we tried working with caramel. So our first attempt at this recipe we got greedy and wanted more candy-to-apple coating. So we cut the apple into triangle wedges, then dipped. The caramel ended up not sticking to the sliced apple, just to the peel, and it oozed onto the wax paper. Bummer. Also the first attempt involved some burned knockles, flung caramel, and silent swear words as Rachel and I both attempted to work in the hot caramel. Note to self – when working with hot candy, only one person should have their hands in the pot.

The boys, however, devoured the apple slices that had just a trace of caramel left adhering to them. That taste was enough to make us want to give this recipe another shot!

So we did- with whole apples. This actually turned out better than the initial plan. We had the ratio backwards- more apple-to-candy was the way to go. And as you can see, the results came out splendid.

It ended up being a pretty easy recipe, after an initial learning curve (no doubt exaggerated by lack of sleep from little ones). And it was quite tasty. We cut it up into pieces and shared with the older boy who happily sat and devoured his share.

Prepare the caramels according to package directions for caramel apples. The bag I used said to slowly melt 7 ounces caramels with 1 tablespoon water over low heat until smooth.

Put a skewer or stick into the top of the apples where the stem was. Once the caramel is melted carefully dip the apples, one at a time, in the caramel to coat evenly. Place the dipped apples on a silpat, non-stick foil, or parchment that has been sprayed with non-stick spray. Let sit for about 10 minutes until the caramel has solidified, cooled, and will not run anymore.

In a double boiler over simmer water melt the white chocolate, stirring constantly until melted and smooth. Alternatively you can melt the white chocolate in the mircowave, on a very low heat and in small time increments. I personally rarely have good luck in the microwave but if you can do it and not burn it, go for it. In the event it does get burnt and you need to save it you can add a little vegetable oil to it, heat it a little bit just to warm it, then press it through a fine sieve and that should help fix it but I obviously can’t guarantee anything.

Dip the caramel covered apples in the melted white chocolate then roll them gently in the crushed graham crackers. Set on the silpat or non-stick surface to set completely. This shouldn't take more than 5 or 10 minutes. Enjoy!